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Party at the Palace Raises Funds for 7 SF Education Nonprofits

On April 2, 2016, the San Francisco Global Shapers, EdTechWomen San Francisco, and the Innovation Hangar hosted the “Party at the Palace: An Evening for Education” at The Innovation Hangar, Palace of Fine Arts. The event brought together over 1,200 individuals and corporate sponsors to support 7 education-focused nonprofit organizations improving graduation rates and life outcomes for students in the Bay Area.

All proceeds from the event, together with corporate donations, were donated to Alternatives in Action, Black Girls Code, Citizen Schools, Girls Who Code, Minds Matter, Mission Graduates, and Wishbone.

The event was made possible with the support of corporate sponsors: Salesforce, AppLovin, Prologis Foundation, Palantir, Wonolo, The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Jay Siegan Presents, Lyft, Hub International, Escape the Routine, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Fort Point Brewery, Lagunitas Brewing Company, and ONEHOPE. In addition, over 80 volunteers donated their time the night of the event to staff the Party.

The event took place from 8pm to midnight on Saturday. The cover band Pop Rocks performed at the event, followed by a lightshow with a set from DJ Will Forbes. Special guests included Amy Weaver, General Counsel at Salesforce and Hydra Mendoza, the Mayor’s Senior Advisor on Education and Family Services. The event also featured a raffle with prizes like Giants game tickets, gift certificates, and other experiences from Airbnb, AppLovin, Bohemian Guitars, Cardio Barre, Jumping Jacks Jumpers, Lagunitas Brewing, Lchiam Foods Catering, Palace Games, Pangloss Cellars, Prologis Foundation, TechShop, Wine and Spirits Magazine, Wines for Humanity, Wonolo, and Zappos.

An official after party organized by Escape The Routine in SoMa kept the party going until around 4am, with 30% of ticket sales also going to the 7 nonprofit organizations.

View photos here: Album 1, Album 2

About the Organizers:

Global Shapers San Francisco: Initiated by the World Economic Forum, Global Shapers is a global community of young changemakers across 450+ cities around the world. In San Francisco, we leverage the expertise of our 40 members to collaborate on projects aiming to improve our local community. (http://www.sfshapers.com)

EdTechWomen: EdTechWomen is a national networked community of business experts, technologists, and educators focused on supporting the development of women’s leadership capacity and opportunity in education technology. (http://www.edtechwomen.com)

The Innovation Hangar: Located in the iconic Palace of Fine Arts, the Innovation Hangar (“iHangar”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that celebrates the innovative spirit of the Bay Area. Open to the public, the 120,000 square-foot social innovation space is designed to be an epicenter of learning and exploration. Innovation Hangar features exhibits, workshops, community events, educational programming for students, and open workspaces for entrepreneurs. (www.ihangar.org)

About the Nonprofit Beneficiaries:

Alternatives in Action: Alternatives in Action inspires Bay Area youth to realize their leadership potential and prepares them for college, career and community life through dynamic educational and real world experiences. Our schools, programs and partnerships provide opportunities and supports that help children and youth succeed and become contributing adults.

Citizen Schools: Citizen Schools is a national non-profit that partners with public middle schools in low-income communities to provide a longer learning day rich with opportunities. We mobilize thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships after school.

Black Girls Code: Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.

Girls Who Code: Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. With support from public and private partners, Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields.

Minds Matter SF: Our mission is to transform the lives of motivated high school students from low-income families by preparing them for college success. Our all- volunteer based non-profit organization has proudly mentored over 75 high school students with 100% acceptance to top universities since 2010.

Mission Graduates: For 40 years, Mission Graduates (MG) has worked to increase the number of K-12 students in San Francisco's Mission District who are prepared for and complete a college education. We work towards fulfilling our mission through a wide range of K-12 after-school, in-school and summer programs that reach over 1,100 youth and families each year.

Wishbone.org: We're working to eliminate the opportunity gap. We send low-income high school students four regions including the Bay Area, Los Angeles to summer programs. Since 2012, we've helped 583 students raise $1,282,040 in funding for summer programs. Wishbone students improve academically, are more prepared, independent, confident and curious.